Tooradin is a town in
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, 57 km south east of
Melbourne's Central Business District
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
, located within the
City of Casey
The City of Casey is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the outer south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Casey is Victoria's most populous municipality, with a June 2018 population of 340,419. It has an area of .
The city is named ...
and the
Shire of Cardinia
The Shire of Cardinia is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, in the south-east of Melbourne between Western Port and the Yarra Ranges on the outskirts of Melbourne. It has an area of 1,283 square kilometres, and had a population of ...
local government area
A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...
s. Tooradin recorded a population of 1,722 at the .
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Naming
The name of Tooradin comes from the Boon wurrung
The Boonwurrung people are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory includes part of what is now the c ...
word ''too-roo-dun'', which refers to the Bunyip
The bunyip is a creature from the aboriginal mythology of southeastern Australia, said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes.
Name
The origin of the word ''bunyip'' has been traced to the Wemba-Wemba or Wergaia ...
that lived in the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp
The Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp was a large freshwater swamp located to the south east of Melbourne, Victoria. It drained an area of West Gippsland, with several waterways including Cardinia Creek and the Bunyip River.
The Koo-Wee-Rup swamp originally ...
. The Dreamtime
The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology, Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Ja ...
creature had a 'reputation for devouring human beings' and 'lived in the thick mud beneath the water of a waterhole that never dried up.'
History
Tooradin was originally settled by the Western Port Indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
people called the Boon wurrung. They had their traditional lands for many thousands of years.
The explorer William Hovell
William Hilton Hovell (26 April 1786 – 9 November 1875) was an English explorer of Australia. With Hamilton Hume, he made an 1824 overland expedition from Sydney to Port Phillip (near the site of present-day Melbourne), and later explored the ...
visited the area in 1827, he saw evidence of Van Diemens Land sealers had left at their temporary camps on the foreshore of Western Port Bay. The sealers had been operating since the early 1800s.
In 1839 saw settlers with their cattle establish runs and settle in the area. Work commenced at draining swamps and improving drainage for pasture. The township was first surveyed in 1854.
Tooradin has always been a fishing village that nestled on the foreshore. The Post Office opened on 21 May 1877.
The railway passed by north of the town by 2 1/2 miles in 1885. A station was created and the fishing industry relied heavily on the railway to transport freshly caught fish to Melbourne. The railways also transported local produce, cattle, sheep and crops were raised on the land and sent to market.
Today
The town has some attractions such as Sawtell's Inlet, and an old historic weatherboard Fishermans Cottage. It is a popular stopping place for people travelling to Phillip Island
Phillip Island (Boonwurrung: ''Corriong'', ''Worne'' or ''Millowl'') is an Australian island about south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. The island is named after Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, by explorer ...
.
The town in conjunction with neighbouring township Dalmore has an Australian Rules
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
football team (Tooradin-Dalmore) competing in the West Gippsland Football Netball Competition
The West Gippsland Football Netball Competition (WGFNC) is an Australian rules football and netball league in the West Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. The competition comprises four grades of football (seniors, reserves, under-18 and ...
.
Transport
Tooradin railway station was formerly situated on the South Gippsland railway
The South Gippsland Railway was a tourist railway located in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. It controlled a section of the former South Gippsland railway line between Nyora and Leongatha, and operated services from Leongatha to Nyora, vi ...
corridor that operated to its terminus at Yarram in the early 1980s and Leongatha in the mid 1990s. A V/Line road coach service replaced the rail service to Leongatha on July 24, 1993, running between Melbourne and Yarram. However, since the closure of the South Gippsland rail line—with the exception of the locally run tourist railway between Nyora and Leongatha (this section of line closed in 2015) by the Kennett Victorian government on December 14, 1994, the South and West Gippsland Transport Group represented by the local council are campaigning for the rail services to be reinstated beyond the current terminus at Cranbourne by the 2020s, which was promised by Bracks government in 1999.
Tooradin Airfield
Tooradin Airfield is a privately owned field located 4 km (2.5 miles) East of Tooradin town centre, on the South Gippsland Highway.
The airfield is situated on of land and has one bitumen runway (04/22) of 950 m (3,117 ft) with lighting, one grass strip of 360 m (1,181 ft) and a 310 m (1,017 ft) gravel strip. There's a derelict freighter ship behind the runway, can be seen on the Gippsland highway, the ship is the Edwina May.
See also
* City of Cranbourne
The City of Cranbourne was a Local government in Australia, local government area about southeast of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1860 until 1994. It ...
– Tooradin was previously within this former local government area.
* Tooradin railway station
References
External links
www.tooradinvillage.com.au
{{authority control
Western Port
Towns in Victoria (Australia)
Coastal towns in Victoria (Australia)
City of Casey
Shire of Cardinia